Tiebreaker
by Gtimes3
Summary: It was at this precise moment that Tezuka Kunimitsu realised something: His manager wasn't the one calling the shots; the real culprit was Yuzuki Yuki; prodgidy, friend, and tennis Captain. Tezuka's future life! Probably TezukaxOC! Read Review!
1. Chapter 1

_**A/n….well, I have a bit of writer's block for Similar: Love is a Learning Process this evening. I'm sure it'll be gone soon…but since I did, I decided that I should write ANOTHER TEZUKAxOC FIC! YAY….**_

_**….I just enjoyed writing the first one so much :P Haha…hope this one is completely different ;) ….I hope you all enjoyss itt...DON'T FORGET TO REVIEEWWWW :P WOOOOO X X X X X  
**_

_**But yeahh, let me know if it's crap and I'll give up while I'm ahead ;) Woopdedooo...**_

_**Chapter song: If we were a movie - HANNAH MONTANA YAAYAAAAA :P  
**_

_**Hahaaaaaaa ITS AMAZING :P**_

_**Chapter 1: IF WEEEE WEEREEEE A MOVVIEEEE**_

_**(I'm a tad hyper..the song/chapter title have NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FIC JAA!!)**_

Tezuka Kunimitsu stood in the waiting room of the man who was soon to be his manager. He had arrived fifteen minutes early because he was quite excited about the meeting; though his poker face gave nothing away. He had been far less excited, however, about the whether. As he stood in the waiting area, he looked out of one of the full length windows to watch the rain pouring down outside. He could see, in the distance, the lights from the tennis courts; which were located within viewing distance of the offices. Even at so closer distance, he could not make out much other than the colour of the rain as it hit the light; which was thrown over the tennis courts by the floodlights which stood to attention around them.

He turned around to survey the waiting area. On the surrounding walls there were many frames, all of which held photographs of grinning people proudly sporting trophies. Tennis trophies that was. Tens of faces grinned back at him as he surveyed the walls.

There were also many scattered chairs around the room, and in the centre, there were four large, comfy looking sofas; in the middle of which sat a table piled high with sports magazines, and several stacks of tennis leaflets. In the corner, there was also a reception desk, behind which sat a pretty woman who had introduced herself as Shou Ryouichi's secutary. She had told him in such a way that he assumed that he was meant to be impressed by it.

In all honesty; he wasn't really very impressed at all. He lifted the sleeve of his tracksuit, so that he could see his watch. _Ten to_; that meant he still had ten minutes to waste. He was just about to sit down when the door slammed open. It slammed open with such force that several of the pictures looked as if they might just fall off the walls.

"SHOU RYOUICHI!" a voice roared, "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

Tezuka turned around speedily, straightening himself out to his full hight again, to see the secutary rushing towards the now opened door, and a very angry looking woman.

The woman was about Tezuka's hight, with messy red hair tied in a bun above her head. She was wearing dark rimmed glasses, and wearing a rather posh suit. Oh, and she was fuming.

He watched, slightly concerned, as the secutary tried to push her back out of the door she came through, muttering things like "Ume-sama! Please!" and "Ume-sama, what will the clients think?"

The woman seemed unpreterbed, however, and continued in her march towards Shou-san's office door. Apparently no one had told her that he wasn't in yet.

Because he was watching the woman, Tezuka had almost missed the two people who were waiting in the doorway. One was a tall, brunette man, who looked upon the scene with a rather concerned face, although it looked like he was battling with himself. He seemed to be concerned, but find the scene amusing at the same time. The other person in the doorway was a girl. She was short, and had short bluish hair, which barly reached her shoulders. She was looking unashamedly amused at the whole situation. Both, he noticed, were sporting sportsware, and were weilding tennis rackets. The boy's was cluched in his hands at his chest; he was clutching at it worridly. The girl's was clasped loosely in her left hand, and rested on the floor, whist she lent on the door.

But the time he had taken them in, and turned around, the woman had managed to somehow force her way through the locked door to Shou-san's office, and was in the process of realising that he wasn't there.

A few moments after coming to this realisation, she rushed out of the door and rounded on the man's poor secutary.

"He's not there", she said quietly.

"I was trying to - " the secutary was starting to reply, before the woman turned her back on her. She looked straight at Tezuka. Now she was so close to him, he realised that she was acctually quite attractive; if not for the rather angry expression she wore at the current time. Her hair was falling fast out of her bun, and a red flush had spread accross her face in her anger.

"You", she said, looking Tezuka right in the eye. "You're Tezuka Kunimitsu", she stated; suddenly looking a slight bit happier than she had been the moment before.

"Hai", he replied; he was slightly surprised to realise that she had been speaking in Japanese.

"Come with me", she said; walking back towards the door, expecting him to follow.

"But I'm waiting for - " he started, he wasn't expecting to be cut off by the woman, repeating what she had just said; just a fair bit louder.

As he followed her out of the door, the secutary had given him a rather apologetic look. He wondered why, but then again, the woman he was following appeared to have a temper; and appeared also to have tapped into it.

The two people who had been waiting at the door for the woman were slinking down the corridor after her. The shorter one had ceased her laughing, and was now conversing with the taller man quietly. The man kept glancing back at Tezuka every few seconds, which set his nerves a little bit. He wondered where the woman was taking him.

They reached the end of the corridor and turned right, stopping in front of an office labelled: Ume Tsubame. He presumed that was who the woman was. His suspicions were confirmed when she took a key out of her pocket and opened the door; ushering them in.

He followed the two of them in front of him as they entered the office, but once he was in, and the woman closed the door behind him, he stood there and waited for the woman to tell him what to do. The other two went and stood at the back of the office, they seemed to be waiting for something; they were still talking quietly between themselves.

While he waited, he surveyed the office, this office too, had many photographs on the wall, most held trophy weilding tennis players. He was surprised to note that several of the photographs featured the three other people in the room.

The woman, while he had been looking at the photographs, had walked to the far end of the office, and settled herself in a big chair, behind a large mahogony desk. She linked her fingers togeather and lent her elbows on the desk; leaning her forehead on the platform she had created with her hand.

"Sit" she ordered.

Tezuka approached the chairs in front of her desk, and sat in the middle one, which was directly opposite the woman, although he wasn't sure that this was the smartest thing to do; given her obvious anger.

She sat like that for a few moments, breathing in and out slowly; she seemed to be calming down, and when she looked up at him, the angry red flush that had graced her face had almost disapeared.

"My name is Ume-Tsubame" she stated, "I am a tennis manager, as well as a part time trainer"

"Ah", he replied, wondering why she was bothering to tell him this.

"I will henseforth be your manager" That could explain it.

"Pardon?"

"I will be your manager as of today Tezuka Kunimitsu-san" she seemed very certain about it; but he had already made arrangements for Shou-san to be his manager; he was a very well known and respected man after all, it wouldn't do for him to pass up the chance to work with such a good manager.

"I have already made arrangements with Sou Ryouichi-san as to my management details" he informed her.

"They have been retracted" the woman answered, staring him down from behind her glasses; Tezuka was sure he heard a snort from behind him, "As of today I _will_ be your manager Tezuka-san"

"But I have already - " he started.

"It would be in your best interest", the woman cut him off again; he was beginning to think that she was quite rude, "to listen to me, and let me be your manager. I can assure you in the most avid sence that I am_ twice_ the manager that Shou Ryouichi is"

"or ever will be", came a voice from the back of the room, Tezuka turned around sharply in his chair to see the girl smiling across the room from where she stood with the older man.

"Thank you Yuki", said Ume-san, Tezuka turned back to see the woman smiling slightly at the girl. He realised now that she was probably the manager of the two of them.

"And why do you want me to - "

"Revenge!" she cried out, standing up and slapping her hand hard on her desk in one fluid movement. "If that arrogent bastard thinks that he can - "

"Tsubame" came the stern voice of the girl from behind him. Yuki, the woman had said her name was.

"Ah, of course, I'm sorry Yuki", the woman said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head, "I got a little carried away..."

The woman sat down again, she looked as if she were a little tired from her previous outbursts. Tezuka stood up, deciding that he had had enough, and that he was deffinatly going to be late for Shou-san if he didn't leave just then. "I'm afraid I still have arrangements with Shou-san" he turned towards the door, ready to leave, "If you'll excuse me - "

"Please!" the woman cried out from behind him; he turned around to find her on her feet again, bowing to him, her shoulders shaking, "Please let me be your manager Tezuka Kunimitsu-sama! You can have half the price off! I'll get you the best sponsors! And you can have unlimited funds and practice times! Anything!" She stopped to catch her breath, "And I'll be here for you twenty four seven!" she finally gasped.

He looked at her increduously, why did she want to be his manager that much? He'd certainly never heard of the woman, and he was surprised that she'd ever heard of him. Dispite being Japanese, the woman was obviously not from the country; she was an American, which was obvious firstly from her looks, and secondly for the slight accent on her words as she spoke. If she had heard of him, she must be really, really enthusiastic about tennis. He wouldn't have been surprised however, if the only way she knew of him was because he had made arrangements with Shou-san.

"Surely you have other - " he gestured to the other two at the back of the room. "Others, that is, who arn't getting any of the things you've just offered me..."

The woman leaned foward on the desk, smiling a bit manically, "They won't mind, right Yuki-chan?!"

Said girl approached the desk, and leant on the back of Tezuka's chair as she spoke, "Of course not Tsubame", she turned to look down at Tezuka, who had sat down again, "No worries ne Tezuka-chan, I'll speak with the team tomorrow", she winked at him, before turning back to look at Ume-chan, who was looking triumphant.

"See?" the woman insisted. Tezuka could no longer reasonably see any reason why he shouldn't let her become his manager. She seemed to really want to be after all; he was sure she would remain insistent until he agreed to it, and the Yuki girl had supported her by saying she was a good manager, and that the team wouldn't mind. He wondered what sort of a position she was in to be able to voice the whole team's oppinion. He knew each manager had enough players to put into a team, and that most did; this was so they could play as teams in competitions, as well as playing in doubles and singles competitions as stand alone players. Each manager had a team of female players, male players, and a mixed team of the best males and females. Aside from that, they all had plenty of subs, who obviously wern't the best of the crop, but were still worthy of the chance to play internationally.

The woman had also insisted that she would give him half price management, which would deffinatly be very useful, since it meant that his family would not have to pay out as much money towards his tennis career; he knew they would have been struggling. She had also said that he would have the best sponsors, unlimited funds, and decent practice time. In all honesty, there was no reason to turn down her gracious offers at all.

"Ah", he finally replied, before agreeing, unaware of what he was getting into.

Ume-san was extatic.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/n….well, I have a bit of writer's block for Similar: Love is a Learning Process this evening. I'm sure it'll be gone soon…but since I did, I decided that I should write ANOTHER TEZUKAxOC FIC! YAY….**_

_**….I just enjoyed writing the first one so much :P Haha…hope this one is completely different ;) ….I hope you all enjoyss itt...DON'T FORGET TO REVIEEWWWW :P WOOOOO X X X X X  
**_

_**But yeahh, let me know if it's crap and I'll give up while I'm ahead ;) Woopdedooo...**_

_**Chapter song: Mrs Acctually - The Like (Who are pretty darn amazing, although I don't know anyone else who has ever heard of them...check them out...they ARE VAIR GUT! :P **_

**Chapter 2: Photographs and memories**

After he had reluctantly agreed to let her be his manager, Ume-san had had him give her a copy of his mobile number, and had shoved a pack of information in his hands. She had then informed him that he would be needed for the second half of tomorrow's team meeting, and that he would be alerted as to when he was needed, and where it was taking place sometime later that day. She would also need to have him come into her office sometime in the near future to discuss his living arrangements.

When she was finished, he shuffled out of the room. The two others followed him, the man closing the door behind him. The girl immeadiatly turned to him; "Yuzuki Yuki" she told him, holding out her hand with a flurish, and a grin. He took her preoffered hand and shook it.

"Tezuka Kunimitsu"

"Yataka Daisuke" said the man, offering his hand also, which Tezuka, in turn, shook.

"I look foward to working with you", he told them.

"The same to you", the man replied, smiling at Tezuka kindly. "Would you like to have the grand tour? I know it's raining, but I could take you round the offices, dorms, and indoor facilities?"

"Ah, that would be good, thank you" replied Tezuka, graciously accepting. The man seemed friendly enough; and no one had shown him anything more than the way to his dorm, and Shou-san's office. He had only arrived the previous evening after all. He had, however, managed to find himself a little cafe in which he had eaten his breakfast and lunch.

He noticed now that the girl, Yuzaki-san, had a rather far off look on her face; she seemed to be distracted. Yataka-san also seemed to notice this; for he turned to her and asked, "Yuki, won't you join us?"

She didn't snap out of it immeadiatly, but a couple of seconds later she turned to him, smiling, "I have buisness to attend to", she told him, before turning to Tezuka and saying "It was good to meet you. See you around!" She waved at them, before walking off down the corridor in the opposite direction.

"Ah", Yataka-san mumbled, "I forgot she had students today!"

"Students?" Tezuka asked, turning to face him properly.

"Hai, lots of us here at T-international take on students; it's really just for a bit of extra money though" he laughed, "Ume-chan says it's like doing a chore to get pocket money. It's good though, although we have everything tennis wise paid for by the sponsors, it's nice to have some extra cash."

"I see, do you get a lot of students?" he asked the man, he was quite interested in this; he hadn't realised that they catered for the more, underqualified players.

"Are you kidding? Everyone who is anyone in the tennis world in America comes to learn here. The students call it 'Temple' as a nickname, because it's like everyone who comes here does it to worship the sport." He laughed before continuing, "We get a lot of Japanese, and other students from over seas especially, since we have managers and trainers from all different countries. It's quite a big buisness of course; oh, and not to mention the rich people who shove their kids into tennis lessons from infancy". He grinned at Tezuka; "some of them arn't bad though."

"I have some pretty great students myself; although I train the youngsters mostly, they're so cute!" he was smiling widly at this thought, the guy obviously loved kids, and talking, Tezuka realised. He really was very friendly. "Of course", the guy carried on, "Yuki gets the most students out of us lot, but I'm not really sure whether that's because she's a good teacher, or whether it's because she's so lenient." He laughed, "they all seem to love her though, even the brats who won't admit it. They keep coming back for more after all!"

"Ah", Tezuka replied, he wasn't really sure what else to say. Yuzuki-san seemed to be a popular character to say the least.

"Shall we?" Yataka-san said, gesturing to the corridor ahead.

"Hai" Tezuka replied.

Two hours later, Tezuka had been shown every indoor facility around; he was very greatful to Yataka-san for showing him around the complex; it was pretty huge, and he hadn't _had_ to humor him and show him around after all. He was beginning to like this man very much. In fact, he reminded him a lot of his best friend, Oishi. He could deffinatly see this man as being the 'mother hen' type. All the same, he was grateful, and looked foward to working with the man.

The two had talked a little about their backgrounds over the journey. Yutata-san had quizzed Tezuka on his previous school, and the competitions, and even a little on his previous team; which seemed to interest him a lot. In turn, Tezuka had learned that Yataka-san was twenty one, and had been with T-international since he was seventeen. He had got his middle school qualifications, whilst saving up for the trip, and come over on the first plane he could find. He'd played in a competition locally, and that's where he was 'discovered', he had been with Ume-san ever since.

He had talked very highly of Ume-san whilst they spoke. Tezuka hoped that he had indeed made the right choice by choosing Ume-san as a manager, rather than insisting that he should go and see Shou Ryouichi-san. It seemed, though, that Ume-san was as good a manager as she, and Yuzuki had pegged her to be. Yutaka san obviously thought so. During Tezuka's tour of the facilities, he talked a lot about how good Ume-san had been to her players, and he had also mentioned a few famous names of people she had turned pro before, which had impressed Tezuka quite a lot; he'd had no idea.

When they had toured all the indoor facilities, Yutaka-san had invited Tezuka to go and do some training with him, he wanted to go and wack some balls around on one of the inside courts. When Tezuka had quizzed him on whether they would be free or not, he had been told that on days like this a lot of the trainers took their pupils to the gym, while the tennis courts were shared by those left behind; they wouldn't be a bother to anyone if they took a couple of balls down and wacked them around on the side of the court for a while.

Tezuka had agreed, and they had gone to fetch their rackets; Yutaka-san's were in his locker, and Tezuka's were in his dorm; they had met back in reception when they were ready.

Tezuka had not yet seen the outside courts, since they had not wanted to venture outside into the rain; and the courts where a little further away than the open ones outside the office, however, the rain seemed to have calmed a bit, so they took a big umberella that Yutaka-san had with him, and ran the short distance to the courts.

Once inside, Yataka-san shook out the umberella and lead Tezuka to the lockers, where he let Tezuka put his things in his own locker, he locked it and lead Tezuka to the place where Court 2 was located. Tezuka noticed in passing that here there were also many photographs gracing the walls, along with trophies and sheilds. There were also quite a few trophy cabnets scattered around the place; all full of gleaming tennis trophies.

As they walked through the corridor towards the court, quite a few people walked by, ranging from young children with parents or tutors, who had just finished lessons, to older, more experianced tennis players; some of whom, Tezuka was surprised to recognise as being international players; some of whom had deffinatly won titles in the past.

One of these happened to be Uyeda Yoshimitsu, who stopped for a few moments to speak with Yataka-san. The man had a towel around his neck, and had obviously just finished his practice.

"Daisuke!" he had called out with a grin, before pulling the guy into a one armed hug and clamping him on the back with hit water bottle.

"Yo! Mitsu!" Yataka-san grinned back; Tezuka assumed they were good friends.

"This the new blood eh?" Uyeda-san asked, gesturing to Tezuka, he winked at him over Yataka-san's shoulder.

"Yup", he replied, "Fresh outta Japan!" He turned back to grin at Tezuka as well, Yoshimitsu walked foward a bit so the three stood in a circle; he held out his hand. Tezuka gladly took it; he had to admit that he did feel a little bit special, talking to such a renowned player.

"Name's Uyeda Yoshimitsu" the guy grinned, "just call me Mitsu! Everyone else seems to", he grinned again, rolling his eyes towards Yataka-san. Something told Tezuka who had started the nickname.

"Tezuka Kunimitsu", he said, taking the guy's hand and shaking it.

"Another Mitsu eh?" Yoshimitsu's grin grew even bigger. "Good to meet you mate, I'll look foward to working with ya!"

"Ah, same to you", Tezuka replied. The guy then lent foward, and gestured for Tezuka to do the same, before muttering in his ear,

"I'd say 'look foward to playing with you', but some people present arn't as mature as us Mitsu's", the guy winked at him, and leant back, grinning. "See you 'round you two. Oi, Daisuke, is our Lord and master calling a meeting tomorrow?"

Yataka-san laughed, giving the guy the thumbs up. "See you there then! And you Mitsu two!" he called, holding his hand up as a wave as he walked away.

"You'll get to know Mitsu better as you work with him", Yataka-san said, smiling kindly at Tezuka, "he's one of the good guys." Then he turned to walk towards the tennis courts again, with Tezuka walking at his heels. He wasn't particuly sure he wanted to be called 'Mitsu' much more though. He supposed, however, that the guy _was_ just being friendly. A lot nicer than he would have imagined, in fact, having seen him of the courts. He was like an older version of Momoshiro, he supposed.

Tezuka took the time as he walked, to admire all of the photographs; it turned out that he recognised a lot of these people too. It was the photograph he didn't notice that shocked him most of all.

It was Yataka-san's laugh that alerted him to it. He had turned to the man questioningly. And he had pointed out a photograph and told him that every time he saw it it made him laugh.

It was not like the other photographs; this one was on a peice of paper, which was a bit rumpled, and had been tacked over another photograph. It had quite clearly been blown up a lot, so that it would cover the one behind it. He wondered who had put it there.

It was the photograph itself that was the most surprising; all of the others had featured grinning people holding trophies, as he got closer; he saw that in this particular photograph, this was not the case.

The photograph was of three people, one of which he didn't recognise, but bore great resemblance to a face he had seen many times in magazines and books; one he recognised because he had met her earlier that very day, and the last was a face he recognised very well.

Ryoma Echizen was the face he recognised very well; he was looking away from the photographer with his eyes, glaring at the person next to him; that person was Echizen Nanjiro, his father, who was looking at the photographer in a rather perculier manor, whilst he appeared to be hiding something behind his back; the last person in the photograph was the girl he had met that morning. She had jumped up behind them, and was making victory signs over their heads; she was also cross eyed, and had her tongue sticking out at the photographer. The two younger people in the photograph were looking a lot younger than he was used to them; he barely recognised the girl; however, the unusually bright blue of he eyes gave her away. Ryoma, of course, aside from growing taller, and losing the childish look, looked just the same. The only one of the party who looked older than Tezuka could have imagined was Echizen Nanjiro: In photographs, Tezuka had only seen him with long hair; tied back as he played tennis; here the man had hair cropped short; he looked very different. His eyes, however, Samurai eyes, were unmistakable.

The photograph, he had to admit, did bring a smile to his lips. He wondered why it was there, of all places.

"They left for Japan just after I joined T-international", Yataka-san spoke sadly from behind him, as if he regreted missing them, "Echizen Ryoma was one of Yuki's students; sort of, they played togeather a lot, but he always refused to pay her anything; I reckon that she played for fun, and he played to improve. Apparently Echizen Nanjiro-sama and Yuki had the same sort of relationship."

"Ah", Tezuka replied, turning back to the man, and following when the man turned away to finish the last leg of their journey.

_**GOOD? NO GOOD? REVIEW AND TELL ALL? MWAH 3**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/n….well, I have a bit of writer's block for Similar: Love is a Learning Process this evening. I'm sure it'll be gone soon…but since I did, I decided that I should write ANOTHER TEZUKAxOC FIC! YAY….**_

_**….I just enjoyed writing the first one so much :P Haha…hope this one is completely different ;) ….I hope you all enjoyss itt...DON'T FORGET TO REVIEEWWWW :P WOOOOO X X X X X  
**_

_**But yeahh, let me know if it's crap and I'll give up while I'm ahead ;) Woopdedooo...**_

_**Chapter song: War - Edwin Starr  
**_

**Chapter 3: Match  
**

When Yataka-san had said that there would be lots of people on the court; and that they would not be disturbing anyone by hitting any balls around, he had been both right and wrong.

He was right by saying there were lots of people on the court; however, they were not playing tennis; they were all standing around, bug eyed, as two people in the middle played a match.

He was wrong because Tezuka was sure that if they started to 'hit some balls around' whilst the match was going on, someone would have something to say about it. They would most definitely be disturbing someone. Many people, in fact.

They stood in the doorway for a few moments; Tezuka took the time to take in the facility. The court had seats layered up around the other three sides of the court, and big floodlights were overhead to light the court in the dark. The people around the court were standing as far to the sides as possible; although the more sensible of them had moved back to sit in the chairs around the outside; mainly those people with younger children.

From where he stood, Tezuka could see the back of one player - a man, probably about his age, who was a bit shorter than Tezuka, and had bright blond hair; he also had quite a muscular figure; Tezuka thought he recognised him from somewhere, but could not think of any famous players with quite that tone of hair. He supposed when the guy turned around he would recognise him. On the other side of the court was none other than Yuzuki Yuki.

Tezuka hadn't watched many girls play tennis before; he had sometimes gone over to see the girl's team of Seigaku with Ryuzaki Sensei, but aside from that, he had not paid particular attention the the female side of the sport. He realised now, as he watched Yuzuki-san play, that he had missed out on quite a lot. When they walked in, they were about halfway through a game, and it seemed that she was serving.

He recognised her stance as she threw the ball up into the air; realising immeadiatly that it would be a twist serve; her stance was very similar to Ryoma's.

What he hadn't foreseen though, was the speed of the ball. "Fast!" he exclaimed when she had hit it.

"Ha!" Yataka had laughed beside him, "you wanna see her bullet serve", he told him, pulling his hands up to rest them behind his head; his elbows starting to stick out at the side. Tezuka watched as the guy on their side of the net hit the ball back, and a rally started. In the end Yuzuki-san won; but it was close.

"Come on", Yakata-san called from a few paces away; Tezuka had been so into the game that he had not noticed the man moving, "Come over here for a better look!"

Tezuka managed to tear his eyes away for a few moments to follow the man over to the chairs around the side. From here he deffinatly did have a better view. He still didn't recognise the boy playing on the pitch, though he could now tell that he was younger than he had originally thought, although he believed he should have.

At the end of the game, which lasted for the next fifteen minutes, everyone in the room cheered, and several people walked up and gave the boy a hug; dispite the fact that he had lost 6-3.

Several older women went and spoke to Yuzuki-san too, gushing about how well she had played. The girl shook them off quite quickly though; when Yataka-san started to lead Tezuka closer to her, he realised that the girl was blushing. They were a few feet away from her when it happened; the crowed was dispersing, and the people were leaving. Suddenly Yataka-san had stopped.

"What's the matter?" Tezuka had asked.

"Trouble", was the reply.

A man was walking quickly through the crowed. When he reached Yuzuki-san, he stopped in front of her and said something to her in a hushed tone. Tezuka watched as she answered. The man looked pretty angry. He reached out suddenly and slapped her. Right accross the face.

"You bitch!" He yelled at her as he did it.

As soon as it had happened, people were running towards her; the boy she had been playing was fastest; he jumped over the net, and sprinted towards the man, grabbing his shirt and yanking him away from her. Another boy, who looked about sixteen, stepped up next to Yuzuki-san, like a guard.

In seconds he and Yataka-san were also very close to them, although Yazuki-san shot them a warning glance, and they stopped about a metre away.

"You sold my client you stupid brat!" The man was yelling, "you sold me out!"

"I did nothing of the sort", she replied icily, "he merely decided that you wern't the manager for him. Like your other little pampered brats should." She was glaring at him, her arms were crossed, and her tennis racket was dangling from her left hand.

"What did you say? Nevermind brat; this'll be the end of you. You and your stupid little team. You're damned manager is a cradle snatcher."

"No", the girl replied, standing a little taller, "she's the fastest cradle snatcher." Tezua felt Yataka-san shaking with laughter beside him. He couldn't help but think that this arguement had started becuase he had chosen Ume-san as a manager that morning.

The man that had slapped Yuzuki-san was now shaking with anger. His face was far redder than Ume-san's had been that morning; his shoulders were shaking, and his fists were clenched in anger.

"You'd better watch yourself Yuzuki", he spat at her, "You'd better watch out for your little brats too". He turned away from her, yanking his jacket out of the blond boy's grasp. "Give your latest toy my regards".

"Why don't you do it yourself?" she asked, turning her back on the man, and shaking off the boy standing next to her - he fell back a little. "He is right here after all", she walked towards Tezuka, pulling his arm away from his side, "Go on Kunimitsu", she said, smiling at him, "Introduce yourself".

The man had turned back to look at him now. He was livid; he was beyond mad. Tezuka just looked at him; his arm still held out by Yuzuki-san; unsure of what to do.

"You made the wrong choice, boy", the man sneered at him, "You'll regret the day you chose Ume Tsubame over Shou Ryouichi!"

The man turned around and stormed from the room. Yuzuki and the others watched him go, before Yuzuki turned to Tezuka and smiled, "Quite the contrary I think", she told him, before stepping back and smiling at the blond boy.

"Good game, Kevin" she told him. Finally, Tezuka recognised the boy. The years since he had last seen him had changed the boy. He was taller, his muscles more defined; his face had lost it's childish look. His hair had also grown out a little longer since he'd last seen the child. Oh, and he was smiling.

"And you Yuki; both matches were pretty nice". The girl just smirked back at him.

"Your face okay Yuki?" the boy who had come and stood by her was back, he was holding out a can of ponta to her; "put this on your face; it'll stop the stinging, it's cold".

"Thank you, MasaKazu-chan" she replied, holding the can to her face, smiling around at them. "No worries, right Dai?" She said, winking and giving a thumbs up.

The guy just laughed at her. "Yuki, sometimes you're amazing" he told her; before grabbing her in a hug, then pulling her down in a headlock, messing up her hair.

Kevin looked at Tezuka and rolled his eyes at the two, grinning. Tezuka just stood there; still feeling quite confused about what had just happened.

_**GOOD? YAY? NEIGH? YES? NO? OUI? NON? JA? NEIN? TELL ALL:REVIEW! x x x x x x x x**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/n….well, I have a bit of writer's block for Similar: Love is a Learning Process this evening. I'm sure it'll be gone soon…but since I did, I decided that I should write ANOTHER TEZUKAxOC FIC! YAY….**_

_**….I just enjoyed writing the first one so much :P Haha…hope this one is completely different ;) ….I hope you all enjoyss itt...DON'T FORGET TO REVIEEWWWW :P WOOOOO X X X X X  
**_

_**But yeahh, let me know if it's crap and I'll give up while I'm ahead ;) Woopdedooo...**_

_**Chapter song: Let it happen - Jimmy Eat World  
**_

_**Chapter 4: Gotta love how it's somehow all on me**_

After he had witnessed the fight between Shou Ryouichi and Yuzuki-san, Tezuka had hit some balls about with Yataka-san as planned, before heading off to an early dinner, and retiring to his room. During the time in his room he wrote some e-mails to those people he was keeping in contact with in Japan, who were certain members of the regulars, Ryuzaki-sensei, and his family.

Just after he had sent the e-mail to his family, there was a knock on his door. He looked down at the little clock on his computer screen, and saw that it was just after six. Curious as to who would know which dorm he was staying in, and what they wanted to say, Tezuk quickly got up and opened the door.

Standing outside was none other than Yuzuki Yuki.

"Yuzuki-san?"

"Yuki, please, good evening Kunimitsu; can I come in?" she didn't wait for an answer and stepped immeadiatly over the threshold, walking past him into the room. He closed the door behind her, and turned around. She stood in the middle of the room, looking around and surveying it.

"They got an awful lot nicer since I lived here; that's for sure" the girl told him, smiling, before making her way to his bed and sitting down on the end of it, kicking off her shoes and crossing her legs. "Grab that chair", she said, pointing to the chair he had been previously occupying, "I've got some things I want to discuss with you."

He did as she had asked, and drew up the chair to the end of the bed; he sat down and waited for her to start talking.

"I'm going to talk for a little while now Kunimitsu, I hope you don't mind", she smiled at him again. He noticed at this moment that she had a bag, which she slid off her shoulder, and rumaged around in for a few moments, taking out a small package of papers. "This is all the paperwork that needs filling in, just to make Tsubame your official manager", she told him, pushing it into his hands. He lent down and placed it on the floor by his chair.

"Right, well, I'd better fill you in", she started. "This afternoon you witnessed what we here at Temple call a 'slice'; you'll hear a lot of tennis terms used as slang in your stay here. A 'slice' in this context is where management issues, and other such things, cause arguements, tiffs, and the like."

She paused and looked him in the eye, "do you undestand?" she asked him. Tezuka merely nodded.

"The best managers in Temple are Shou Ryouichi, and Ume Tsubame - your manager of course. They are also the biggest rivals however, and are constantly trying to get one up on each other. This was one of the reasons that Tsubame wanted to steal you in the first place, although I admit I probably gave her a little bit of an idea on that one. I've heard a lot about you Tezuka Kunimitsu - I expect you to live up to my expectations."

She was looking a little more serious now; she pushed her bag off the bed, and pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. She sighed softly.

"Because of their rivalry, all of the Japanese players are sent to just these two, any other managers that take on Japanese players are usually rubbish, and the players aren't up to standerd. Any player that falls into the hands of one of these managers is usually paid a great deal of money by Shou Ryouichi, and transfers to his team. Although there are the odd players who play without managers - although it's very difficult to get by without one."

She paused again at this point; she ran one hand through her hair, she seemed to be collecting her thoughts.

"In this world you should learn straight away that there is no easy way to the top, as you witnessed earlier, you will get into fights with people; other players, other managers; no matter how hard you try to avoid it. There will also be people you will have to step on to get to the top; there will be others, in turn, who will step on you. International tennis is dog eat dog Kunimitsu, do you understand?"

"Ah", he replied; of course, he knew it wasn't exactly easy to get to the top of the professional tennis league. Tennis was his life however, and he was prepared to do all he could in order to become a champion in his trade, as it were.

"I should also let you know now that in several months, there will be several very good players coming to temple; who will all take up under Tsubame; I'm letting you know now because I am going to tell you this: You will need to impress me in the next few months. If you don't, you won't get very far. I am the captain of the female team, and the mixed team under Tsubame; if I say you are good, your future will be set up with her. If you do not match up to my expectations, I will not allow you to be on the mixed team, which could damage your future hugely. 'Mitsu is the captain of the men's team; he can do what he wants with you, but the mixed team is where you will earn your stripes. You need stripes to impress Tsubame. Is that clear?"

"Hai", he replied; so that's how she could speak for the team so easily. She was captain to two of them; that was a pretty massive accumplishment. She was so young, he could hardly belive it.

"I'm a big influence in this place also, so you shouldn't get on my bad side, I've been training here almost all of my life. At fifteen I quit school to become a trainer here, because I was offered the place. Just impress me Kunimitsu, I can make your life an awful lot easier."

"I see", he replied; he really wasn't sure what she wanted him to say to her, however, he guessed he now knew how she had made captain so young; if she really had been here for a long time Ume-san was sure to have seen her talent.

Yuki got up and grabbed her bag. "I'd like you to join the club meeting tomorrow at eleven please Kunimitsu; in the first hour of the meeting we will be discussing your future; my side of it has already been decided, but there are some aspects of it that me and the rest of the team will need to decide. I will also need to talk to Mitsu about you a little. We will be in conference room one; I assume you know of it?"

Tezuka nodded back at her, "hai".

"Good", she said, opening the door and walking out of it, "I'll see you tomorrow then, at eleven".

Tezuka just watched as the door closed on her retreating back.

_**GOOD? YES? NO? REVIEW? YAAA?? X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/n….well, I have a bit of writer's block for Similar: Love is a Learning Process this evening. I'm sure it'll be gone soon…but since I did, I decided that I should write ANOTHER TEZUKAxOC FIC! YAY….**_

_**….I just enjoyed writing the first one so much :P Haha…hope this one is completely different ;) ….I hope you all enjoyss itt...DON'T FORGET TO REVIEEWWWW :P WOOOOO X X X X X**_

_**But yeahh, let me know if it's crap and I'll give up while I'm ahead ;) Woopdedooo...**_

_**To my reviewers so far:**_

_** Ixamxeverywhere: There are many girls in this fic though...are there not? It has many twists and turns though ;) haha, I wan't to push Tezuka's emotional boundries out, although I hope do do so and NOT make him too OCC :D Also, I shall make it a bit clearer in the next chapter how old he is! Sorry I hadn't done so before, I didn't even realise!! ARGHH! SORRY :P Lolll xD x x x x x  
**_

_**Animelover: Thanks so much! Have now updated (Well duh, slaps head for being obvious) Will update again soon...would have had this out sooner...but I had moi piano lesson :P Woopwoop x x x x x**_

_**Chapter song: Papercut - Linkin Park **_

**Chapter 6: Sink or Swim**

The next morning Tezuka headed down to the meeting at eleven, as planned. When he reached the conference room, he was not sure whether to just walk in or knock.

He opted for the latter.

"Come in Kunimitsu" called a voice he recognised as Yuki's, "Right on time, as expected of Kunimitsu" she told him, smiling when he walked in.

It took him a few moments to take in his surroundings; in front of him was a table, arround which sat a variety of different people; there were about twenty five in total. At the front of the room was a huge whiteboard, next to which sat Yuki, on the left, a bit to the right of the whiteboard sat Yoshimitsu, who gave him a big grin and a victory sign as he entered.

"Grab one of the spare seats Mitsu 2", he said, gesturing to the spare seats at the end of the table. He went and sat in the nearest seat, next to a girl with long raven black hair who turned around and winked at him as he sat down.

"We were just discussing training shedules for the next few weeks Kunimitsu", she had stood up now, and was handing out sheets of paper to the team, "We're going to be training every day from nine 'til five, whether permitting, for the next three weeks. At the end of these three weeks we are going to be holding friendly matches with the burger brigade for a week (Several cheers broke out amongst those gathered). After which we will have a weeks break, in which you can spend in any way you like; although if you are flying over friends and relatives I would like to please be informed within the next couple of weeks, so that I can make arrangements with your sponsors, travel arrangements, and also arrange for them to stay somewhere. Please don't leave it too late, like some people, naming no names Azame."

A pretty girl who was sitting several seats down from Tezuka on the other side of the table blushed and laughed. He assumed that this was Azame.

"Also, now that Kunimitsu is here, I will release the official run up for the next matches. Subs will be playing subs from the other team. I'll start with the women's team:

Rai Junko and Setsuko Nanari - Second doubles"

Two girls high fived each other.

"Mai Azame and Suzu Haruko - First doubles"

Two girls near the bottom of the table grinned at each other.

"Hoshi Hideyo - Third singles"

The girl next to Tezuka moved slightly, and he saw a man from accross the table wink at her and give her a thumbs up.

"Chika Umeko - Second Singles"

A girl further down the table got clamped on the back by a boy sitting next to her.

"I will be playing singles one"

No one seemed surprised, most just smiled up at her.

"The subs will be, of course, Chizu Dai, and Kameko Akemi"

Two girls nodded to her from the middle of the table.

"Do you want to announce the boys team, Mitsu?" She asked him, looking over at the man, who was lounging around in his seat.

"Nahh", he replied, waving her off, "Go for it".

"Hai, the boys team will be", she looked down at her list;

" Kiyoshi Hajime and Hotaka Isawo - Second doubles"

Tezuka watched as two men exchanged a high five accross the table. Several girls laughed at the action.

"Minoru Naoki and Yori Nobu - First doubles"

Two younger boys grinned at each other the other side of the table.

"Yuudai Yuu - Third singles"

Several people clapped; the boy opposite Tezuka but one got up and bowed.

"Mitsu buchou - Second singles"

The table went silent; obviously they were expecting him to play first singles; in that case, who was playing first singles? It seemed unlike a captain not to take the position.

"Tezuka Kunimitsu - Singles one"

Everyone on the table turned to look at him, incredulous. Tezuaka looked up to the front of the room, he looked at Yuki, confused. She gave him a wink and a grin. "Don't think you can handle it?" she asked sweetly.

"Ah" he replied.

Yuki stuck her tongue out at him. His eyes widened.

"Daisuke will not be playing; he has to back to Japan for a month in two weeks, which is why he is not in the final line up. However, if you impress us, maybe he won't get back into the final line up." She winked at Daisuke as she said it though.

"The mixed team will not be playing this time; however, we have matches with the mixed roastie boasties when we get back from our break. The like up will be:

"Mai Azame and Suzu Haruko - Second doubles"

"Minoru Naoki and Yori Nobu - First doubles"

"Hoshi Hideyo - Third singles"

"Teuka Kunimitsu - Second singles"

"Mitsu buchou - First singles"

"I will be playing as the only sub"

"If anyone has any problems with these line ups; you can come and speak to me, and I will tell you where you can stick your racket. Dismissed!"

The team laughed, and started to leave, though several came over to talk to Tezuka, and introduce themselves.

The first to introduce themselves was Hoshi Hideyo, the girl with raven hair, she turned around in her seat towards him, and smiled kindly, "I'm Hoshi Hideyo", she told him, "But please feel free to call me Hideyo-chan"

"Ah, I look foward to working with you Hideyo-chan, I am Tezuka Kunimitsu."

"Nice to meet you Tezuka-chan" He shook her hand, before she introduced him to several other people who had walked over to see them. Minoru Naoi and Yori Nobu were first; they were the main doubles pair here, he found out, and they had been playing togeather since they were young. Naoi was a tall muscular boy with bronze hair; Nobu was shorter, more lith, and had amazingly green eyes. They seemed very friendly, telling him to call them by their first names, as everyone else had done, and they also invited him to come training with them that weekend; he told them he'd think about it, he had not decided on what he was going to do at that time. They seemed to find the answer very agreeable. They soon left to 'go get some practice', grinning and waving as they left.

Another person who came over to meet him was Mai Azame, also part of a duo. She seemed a bit distant, but he was assured quietly by Hideyo-chan that she was an extremely kind person.

Eventually, when everyone had disapeared; Yuki and 'Mitsu buchou' leaving last, both grinning at him, Yuki winking at him, he was left alone with Hideyo-chan, who filled him in on which members of the club played best togeather in doubles pairs, and what sort of training they would be doing later in the week.

"Arn't we going to practice togeather today?" he finally asked her.

The girl smiled back at him, "No, Yuki and Mitsu buchou are very leniant with us; especially on the first day back to training; they expect us to train ourselves. I'm going to train with a friend from the brigade later; you're welcome to join us, if you want, I can bring someone else along, so then we will be an even number." She smiled happily at him; since she was being so kind, he decided that he would go with her.

"Great!" she said; looking genuinly happy, "I'll tell daniel later. Would you like to go and get some lunch now? I think that's where the people who wern't training have gone, or I could introduce you to some people from other clubs?"

"Other clubs?"

"Sure, like the burger brigade, the wine tasters, and the noodles!"

"Er?"

"Oh right! How silly of me. We all rename each other, so we recognise people's countries", she grinned, and winked at him. "For example, we are the 'Sushi slashers', because that is the food people recognise us by. China are the 'Noodles', and the American's are the 'Burger Brigade'", she giggled, "I think Yuki and her friends came up with it when they were younger".

"Ah"

"Come on", she stood up, "let's go grab some food, and I'll introduce you to the buffet!"

_**Good? No good? Very good(Doubtful! But a gal can dream ;) haha)?...x x x x x x x**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/n….well, I have a bit of writer's block for Similar: Love is a Learning Process this evening. I'm sure it'll be gone soon…but since I did, I decided that I should write ANOTHER TEZUKAxOC FIC! YAY….**_

_**….I just enjoyed writing the first one so much :P Haha…hope this one is completely different ;) ….I hope you all enjoyss itt...DON'T FORGET TO REVIEEWWWW :P WOOOOO X X X X X**_

_**But yeahh, let me know if it's crap and I'll give up while I'm ahead ;) Woopdedooo...**_

_**Chapter song: She's so high - Tal Bachman  
**_

**Chapter 6: Food for thought  
**

When they reached the main cafateria, which, Hideyo-chan insisted was where everyone whent to buy their lunches, which Tezuka realised was teh explination of how the cafe was so empty when he went there to eat, it was packed. People of all nationalities sat in big groups at big tables. It somewhat reminded him of Germany, because of the shear amount of different races of people; and also of Seigaku, because of the hustles and bustles of all the people inside.

Tezuka realised, with a pang, that they were all tennis players. Another pang alerted him to the fact that they were all_ very good _tennis players.

The people in the room ranged from people who looked as young as some of the freshmen at Seigau, which made him think of Ryoma for a moment, to men and women who appeared to be in their late thirties.

He couldn't say he wasn't surprised at the fact that, despite being in peak physical condition, by the looks of them, that they were all eating junk food. Tezuka's diet mainly consisted of healtier foods; he kept away from junk foods most of the time. Half because he didn't like them; he couldn't understand how people could enjoy eating cooked greece, and half because if he did eat too much junk food, his physical condition would deteriorate substantionally.

Hideyo had obviously seen the expression on his face. "Don't worry; not all of us eat like that, and even they don't eat like that when they have competitions coming up!"

She lead him over to what she called the 'healthier food counter, which Tezuka was pleased to find out stocked things like sandwhiches, salads, pasta, and fish.

He and Hideyo both decided to get sandwhiches. It was the easiest way to go, and the quickest. While they paid, she told him about which foods the cafateria did well, and which they didn't do so well, and recomended him to places around the site, and in town.

He was just helping Hideyo look for a table when he heard a familiar voice call out to them.

"Hey! Tezuka, Hideyo! Over here!"

He turned around to find Kevin standing up at a nearby table, waving them over, he was grinning, and pointing out two empty seats in front of him.

"Burger brigade it is then", came Hideyo's voice from beside him; she stepped in front of Tezuka and lead the way there, weaving between the groups of standing people who had finished their lunch, and were in the process of finishing their conversations.

Hideyo took the seat next to another American boy whom Tezuka recognised as having been on the American team, when they had played Japan with Kevin. The guy turned around to them and gave Yuki a winning smile, before introducing himself to Tezuka as Terry. He then punched the guy next to him in the arm, who turned around, giving the same winning smile, and introducing himself as Tom. Tezuka remembered after their introductions who they were. They Griffy brothers; a doubles pair.

Tezuka found he quite enjoyed getting reaquainted with Kevin Smith. In Japan, the boy had been horrid; using a very violent style of tennis in order to beat his opponents down; always searching for a match with Ryoma. Since then, it appeared that he had grown up quite a lot; not just physically.

However, it had been two years ago. The boy would be sixteen by now; Tezuka himself was eighteen.

The boy filled Tezuka in on having seen Ryoma at the US Open the year before, and on the fact that they had started to keep in contact since. He told Tezuka that he was surprised that Ryoma had not quit school in order to turn pro yet.

Then he said something very interesting.

"Yuki says that it's because he's taking his job as a 'Piller of Support' or something very seriously", he had leant on his elbow on the table and leaned on his chin on his fist at this point. Cocking his head to the side in thought, the straw from his juice caught between the teeth he was showing off. "He certainly has the personality of a piller that one", he continued, before pulling the juice carton away from his face, the straw still clenched between his teeth. He started to play with the other end as he started babbling on about meeting Ryoma again sometime soon to train.

At least Tezuka knew now that Seigaku was going to be okay without him there. He had worried last year about leaving Seigaku in the care of Kaidoh; however, Ryuzaki Sensei had told him everytime they were in contact that Kaidoh was doing pretty well at his job; the regulars were working harder than ever; he had been focusing especially on improving their stamina.

He'd had to laugh when Ryuzaki had informed him that apparently Momoshiro's stamina had appeared to be the worst there.

Apparently Ryoma's hadn't been overly great either.

Overall, Tezuka had a very enjoyable lunch.

As soon as they were finished, Hideyo insisted that she took him round the tables and introduced him to the other players he should know. Kevin had informed him that out of the rest of the 'burger brigade', the people he should know were deffinatly:

Doubles pair - John Lovege and Micheal Host

Singles three - William Jenkins

and Captain Joe Standard.

Hideyo had then told him of the burger brigade girls that he would have to meet, who were:

Doubles pair - Stacy Pack and Cassie Whitman

Singles two - Maddie Cole

And Captain Renee Jade.

They were the 'people to get in with' they had assured him. It seemed that Hideyo was very well aquainted with the Americans.

After the long conversation with Kevin, many of the people who had been in the cafateria a while ago had disapeared; so Hideyo had only managed to introduce him to the 'roastie boasties' - England; although, he noted, she called a couple of them 'Yorkshire puds'; he assumed they must have come from Yorkshire.

The England team was all very nice; they didn't seem boastful at all, but when he tried to inform Hideyo of this fact, she told him to 'shh', it was against the rules to point out the flaws in the rhyming.

With all the 'excitement' of lunch, Hideyo had forgotten to ask someone else to come training with them that afternoon, so Tezuka insisted that she should train with her friends; he had some things to do after all.

In the end, he won the arguements, even though she tried mighty hard to get him to come training.

Instead, Tezuka decided he'd better get on with 'keeping in touch' with his contacts. He'd never been very good at such things, but decided that it was probably important to them. He would train hard with the team tomorrow.

_**Good? No good? Very good(Doubtful! But a gal can dream ;) haha)?...x x x x x x x**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/n….well, I have a bit of writer's block for Similar: Love is a Learning Process this evening. I'm sure it'll be gone soon…but since I did, I decided that I should write ANOTHER TEZUKAxOC FIC! YAY….**_

_**….I just enjoyed writing the first one so much :P Haha…hope this one is completely different ;) ….I hope you all enjoyss itt...DON'T FORGET TO REVIEEWWWW :P WOOOOO X X X X X**_

_**But yeahh, let me know if it's crap and I'll give up while I'm ahead ;) Woopdedooo...**_

_**I have, just to let you know, decided to write a companion fic to this; I will probably post a preview in the next few chapters; it's sort of from Yuki's point of view, because this fic doesn't make her out to be very 'deep', but she really is xD hahaaaa...it'll be interesting to see how things 'work' in 'her world' anyways...I think so haha **_

_**Chapter song: Canto Della Terra - Andrea Bocelli  
**_

**Chapter 7: Training  
**

Tezuka had thought that twently laps was going to be a doddle. He didn't understand why they were doing such a small warm up; or his team mates pained faces.

The fact of the matter was, he told himself, they were all lazy, and or hated running.

When he found out that the laps wern't around the tennis courts, but around the whole complex, he suddenly found himself sympathising with the rest of the team immensly.

Despite his first reservations, he had, overall, quite enjoyed his first tennis practice with the team. He had run with 'Mitsu one', who had talked constantly, which had kept Tezuka amused for the most part. Then he'd stretched with Yataka, who he had then done 'skill work' with.

The skill work had been, for that day, vollying over the net, without letting the ball drop. It had been easy at first, but when Yuki had told them to add two, then three balls to the game, it had gotten quite difficult; Tezuka had had to resort to switching hands several times whilst they played.

After they'd finished warming up, they had 'fitness'; which was basically glorified circuit training, followed by interval training; which happened to be more running; although Yuki had ordered them to run backwards, fowards and sideways. She told Tezuka quietly that it was to make sure people could reach the balls that they needed to run in such a way for, since Tezuka had never trained like this.

After fitness, they had a fifteen minute break, so the team could get water, and Yuki and Mitsu could set up the next part of the training.

The next part of the training was basically 'king of the castle', which meant that the players had to win the 'king' spot by winning a point from the other player. Yuki, he noticed, was watching particularly closely during this game. He was sure, by the end, that he had definitely not done any worse than any of the others; he guessed the wink she had given him could be called confirmation.

For the rest of the day, the team were told that they would be working in doubles; since the doubles needed practice; and it was a good opportunity for the rest of the team to work togeather and to practice their techniques.

While Yuki had been telling them this, Hideyo-chan had winked at him from a few feet away, he took this as a silent invetation to work togeather; he had nodded subtley back to her. However, at the end of her speech, Yuki had called out and told him that he would come and work with her during this time. He had smiled apologetically at Hideyo-chan, she had looked sad, but had shrugged, and went off to work with Chika Umeko.

Tezuka did see the funny side of who she chose to work with; it had appeared to him that Chika Umeko was the opposite to him; she was short, with long blond hair, which was held in two plaits behind her head; which must have hurt, Tezuka thought, whenever she moved and they hit her back. Her personality was 'cute', she was an adorable person, and was a little like Eiji over all. She was about seventeen, so she was a little younger than Tezuka.

Tezuka followed Yuki away from the rest of the team to another court; which she quickly unlocked, and ushered him in.

"This is a friend of mine's court" she told him, "it's private, but I'm going to give you a copy of the key later; you can use it whenever you feel the need."

Tezuka just nodded back at her; he supposed this was part of the 'unlimited practice time' deal.

"You and me are going to work on singles games instead of doubles today, and over the next few weeks. So you're lucky ne?" she was smiling at him, whilst picking the fluff of a new tennis ball; she had brought three packets with her.

"Ah", he replied, waiting for her to continue. She did, when she was satified with the ball.

"First", she told him, "we are going to work on your serve".

He just nodded, he had seen her serve, his was no where near as fast."

"We are going to get your main serve much faster", she continued, "and I'm going to teach you a new serve to go with it."

"Which?"

"Twist serve, I'll assume you know of it?" she was teasing him, he realised.

"Ah"

"Let's go then. Get onto the court", she ordered him, "You're going to show me your serve, and I'm going to tell you how to make it better." Then she stopped where she was standing. "We will not be working on your Zero-Shiki serve", she told him suddenly, "I have no way to improve that".

Tezuka just walked away from her, walking to the other side of the court, and took one of the balls out of the container, which she had passed him.

He bounced the ball several times judging it's weight and bouncability, before he threw it into the air, sparing a moment to glance at the other side of the court, to judge the power and angle of the shot, before he followed the ball, bringing his racker up from behind him, in a full arc, to hit the ball at the top, and then follow the shot through.

It was his fastest serve; bullet serve, but he watched in dismay as the girl threw herself to the side of the ball; which had landed on her left, brought her racket down to it, whilst it was on the up, and wacked it back accross the court at him. It landed just behind him.

She pulled on the strings of her racket for a moment, thinking. "More power" she told him, "You'll need to train your arms a lot more".

"Hai"

For the rest of the session, she got him to repeatedly hit serves; sometimes telling him to use more power; to hit the ball a little further down on the racket; then further up; to hold his racket a millermetre down, and changing his stance.

By the end of training, he was exhausted; and never wanted to serve another tennis ball again.

At the end of the training session, she had him serve his Zero-Shiki. She smirked as it landed, not even bothering to try and hit is; as he had thought she might. "Impressive" she told him. "Don't use it though".

"Why not?" he had never been told he couldn't use a shot, except his Zero-shiki drop shot, which had been damaging to his arm. The serve wasn't damaging; it didn't use the same movement for a start.

"Secret technique" she told him, tapping her nose, "you shouldn't use the drop shot either".

"But - "

"But what; if you show off your techniques here before you debut, the vast majority of your 'enemies' will know what you can do, and collect the data to beat you". She stopped for a moment, "no one here knows the full potential of anyone else. You should learn that now. Can be friends with anyone you want to be here, and no one will care. However, once you get on the opposite side of the court to them, they won't hold back".

It made sence, he supposed, though he didn't wish to think of anyone as his enemy; but it did make complete sence. He sighed in defeat. "How will I practice them?"

"You'll practice with me"

"But you said - "

"If you hadn't care to notice", she replied, a little icily, "I happen to be a member of the opposite sex, and unless the rules change, or one of us suddenly changes team, I doubt the two of us will ever meet on a tennis court."

Tezuka didn't understand why that thought was so disappointing to him.

_**GOOOD? BAD? UGLY? - REVIEWWWWWW! X X X X X X**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/n….well, I have a bit of writer's block for Similar: Love is a Learning Process this evening. I'm sure it'll be gone soon…but since I did, I decided that I should write ANOTHER TEZUKAxOC FIC! YAY….**_

_**….I just enjoyed writing the first one so much :P Haha…hope this one is completely different ;) ….I hope you all enjoyss itt...DON'T FORGET TO REVIEEWWWW :P WOOOOO X X X X X**_

_**But yeahh, let me know if it's crap and I'll give up while I'm ahead ;) Woopdedooo...**_

_**I have, just to let you know, decided to write a companion fic to this; I will probably post a preview in the next few chapters; it's sort of from Yuki's point of view, because this fic doesn't make her out to be very 'deep', but she really is xD hahaaaa...it'll be interesting to see how things 'work' in 'her world' anyways...I think so haha **_

_**Chapter song: Dirty Little Secret - All American Rejects  
**_

**Chapter 8: Mobile**

Since the first day of training, one week ago, Tezuka had spent a lot of time in Yuki's company. Every day, whilst the others practiced, she took him aside for several hours, and they worked on improving his serve, and teaching him new techniques. The first night, she had phoned him up to ask him if he would please make a list of all the techniques he knew; and the next day she had told him to show off his skills to her. After which, she had decided to teach him some other techniques, insisting that his current ones were not enough.

She had decided that the two main ones she would teach him would be Jack Knife, and the Buggy Whip Shot (Snake). She told him that they would both go well with his other skills, seeing as he was an all rounder. He would, at the end, have learned from her, before his big game, how to shoot a very, very fast serve, and also know a strength shot, and a more 'skillful' shot - or so she put it.

Being a very hard worker, and very focused, by the end of the week, Tezuka's serve had improved by about five miles per hour, and he had got the skill down to use the other techniques; although she informed him that they were nowhere near concise enough; which meant that he would need to practice a lot more.

On some evenings since, she had taken him to dinner, generally sitting with the other members of the team in the cafeteria, and had then taken him to the gym, where she would help him work on building strength in his arms; through lifting weights, and doing cardio machines which centered around, or at least encorperated the use of his arms.

Every night, Tezuka returned back to his room exhaused, but forfilled.

It was on one such day, one week from the day they started training, when he played witness to the strange phone call.

The two of them had just finished training togeather, and were on their way to meet Yataka-san and Mitsu for dinner in the cafateria when her mobile rung. She had her tennis racket tucked under her arm at the time, as she praised him for his effort in that day's session, so she pulled her phone out of her pocket with her left hand, holding it up to her ear.

"Moshi Moshi?" she asked; so he assumed she was speaking to a Japanese person; perhaps another team member, or Ume-san.

"Ah", she said down the phone once the person the other end replied. Tezuka watched her listen to the person the other end.

"Hai"

"Ah"

"Hai"

"Not yet"

"Tonight"

"Ah"

"Hai"

"Hai, Tezuka Kunimitsu"

It was after he'd heard his name that he'd acctually started hearing the person at the other end of the conversation. The voice had raised marginally, and he could now tell that it was a man; however, the sound was muffled, and the man was talking quickly, so he could not tell what he was saying.

He watched, surprised, as Yuki pressed the side of the phone to turn down the volume, glancing up at him while she did so.

"There is no reason for us to be having this conversation now", she paused for a moment, thinking about her next words carefully, "just stop being a child and let me handle the arrangements. Call me later on."

Then she hung up the phone.

Tezuka just looked at her, before shrugging and following her to the cafateria. It was her buisness after all, but he had never really heard her be so cold to someone before. Except for perhaps Shou-san.

That night it had seemed she was crueler than usual at the gym.

To be honest; Tezuka liked her a lot as a captain; she was very helpful, and her team all loved her. He was told also, that she was very skilled; something she had witnessed a little of when he had watched her play against Kevin, who, after spending many dinners in his company, he was growing quite fond of.

Sometimes Tezuka wondered if she was supposed to be spending so much time working with him; there were, after all, lots of other tennis players on the team, and he was sure they could all imporove. When he had questioned her about it, however, she had waved it off; telling him that everyone was in need of one to one tuition, and that, according to his deal with Ume-san, he was supposed to be the number one priority of the team.

It was true, but he felt a little bad about it; since the others were all paying doubly as much as he was, and should have had the same amount of training as he did.

He also often wondered why it was Yuki who took their training. He knew for a fact that once they had left, an outside tutor who worked at Temple came and helped Mitsu and the others train; they were all supposed to be professionals in their own right after all, and Mitsu did have matches.

Aside from the one match with Kevin, he had never seen Yuki play a match.

He had asked her about this once as well, but she had merely told him that she was 'waiting' for the right time to turn pro.

For some reason, Tezuka had a feeling that this was not strictly true.

Despite, however, the fact that she was always very guarded, he found her to be a good friend. He could understand her popularity at Temple. Aside from being helpful, she also cared a great deal for her team; often, he was told, working overtime. She also spent a lot of time being sociable with her team, amongst other friends from the complex. She and the other Japanese players seemed to get along best with the 'burger brigade', a name which Tezuka found difficult to use; but Yuki had told him that she wouldn't anwer questions related to them if he didn't use it, she'd told him that he was far too serious; despite being serious about tennis, Temple was a place where people couldn't afford to be serious, they should always be happy - according to her it was beneficial to ones game. Tezuka thought she was lying.

He had also started to become very friendly with his team. Yataka-san and Mitsu in particular. Although at first Tezuka had found it difficult to call the older man Mitsu, the fact that eveyone else around him had, and he had insisted, and looked hurt every time Tezuka had called him by his full name, he had eventually had to give in, and he had started to call him Mitsu. Yataka-san didn't mind so much that Tezuka didn't call him Daisuke or Dai, he had told him to call him whatever he felt most comfortable with; so Tezuka had gone on calling him Yataka-san, unable to break his habit, and unwilling to, in order to call him by his first name.

It was Yataka-san and Mitsu who he had seen at the gym that night, and once Yuki had left, he approached them and asked them about the weird phone call. He didn't understand why the girl had been so cold, or why she had turned down the phone, to keep him from hearing the conversation with the man.

Yataka-san had known nothing about the conversation, and Mitsu had pretended not to know while the other man was around; however, when he had gone, about half an hour later, Mitsu pulled him to the side, and told him that he would tell him about the phone conversation, as long as he didn't speak to anyone else on the subject; Tezuka had agreed.

The man had stretched up, and then leant against the wall they stood by; his long dark hair contrasting with the wash white.

"I'm not sure where to start", he started, "but Yuki has a lot of secrets. The people who have been here the shortest will know least about them of course. She's very good at keeping things hidden from us. However, I've been around for longer than most of the people here at temple; I'm one of the oldest of course." he turned and grinned at Tezuka, winking. The man, Tezuka had learned a while ago, was fast approaching twenty nine. His tennis cereer, according to Yataka-san, was almost over; despite the fact that the man was a bundle of energy, and talent, so late into his life.

"I've known her since she was about twelve; she was a cute kid, I was twenty four when I met her. I'd never seen a kid play better before that, I barely knew anyone else that played tennis; I was picked up by Tsubame after kicking everyone's asses in a school competition in Japan. I was the first person she ever took on. She's only thirty herself!", he said, laughing. "She was working for her parents company, and she brought me here. They were delighted, of course, that she would be taking over their buisness with a good eye. So that's how I'm here today."

He paused for a while, remenising about his past. Then he turned back to Tezuka, "and that's where I met Yuki. She was still young, and she hadn't taken on a manager; I think that was due to her 'trainer' as it were. She used to play against Echizen Nanjiro, who hadn't had a manager, of course, until he got to the states, and was picked up by Temple when he started playing big competitions. He was a bit of an inspiration to her really. She used to play against his kid too; she used to do a bit of training with him; she trained all the younger kids then too; she was always like that - she likes to see people win I think, to succeed. It's nice."

"When she was a kid she also used to have a bit of OCD. Her parents died on a holiday when she was ten I think; right in front of her. Car crash I think. She was unharmed; it was pretty much the usual thing; they were crushed from the front; she escaped unharmed in the back. She has a brother too, but he was older. He was a teenager when he comitted suicide. Only sixteen. Five year age gap; she went through some bad times. She just sat there and stared, thinking, for hours. People thought she was thinking about her parents and brother, about killing, and about comitting suicide. Everyone was seriously worried; she lived in the dorms afterall. They made her move in with an older woman and everything."

She came out one day when she was twelve though, and everyone found out what she had been thinking about. She'd been strategising. Tennis; everything became tennis to her after that. She worked hard with a private teacher, of course, she wouldn't abandon her studies; but she started living for the sport. She trained obsessivly. But she still had some OCD problems. She used to go up and touch the net before she started a game, hold her racket in all different positions before serving. That sort of thing. She had a psychiatrist for years."

He turned once again to look at Tezuka, who was just staring at him, and trying to take everything in. He had no idea that the girl had had such a dark past. He wondered how she smiled so much; and she always seemed so, so _happy._

"It was probably Nanjiro-sama that brought her out of her shell in the end though; she had loads of people hired to talk to, but she just wouldn't open up at all. She just sat there and watched people play, then made stratergies, and then practiced and practiced and practiced. Nanjiro was one of the people she really wanted to beat. So many people admired him; I think she just wanted to prove herself. She never managed it though. She played him and played him and played him. It all amounted to nothing though. She'd known him a little before her parents had died, of course, and she'd been playing tennis with his son, Echizen Ryoma for a long, long time. They'd gotten along well, or as well as you could get along with a brat like that, up until the accident. Afterwards, she just didn't talk to anyone. Her friends forgot about her, and she just went her own way for a while"

"Eventually, during one of their hundreds of games, Nanjiro said, or did, something that changed her. Nobody knows what, no one was there. But suddenly she changed. Everything about her. After that, she and the Echizens were inseperatable. She and Nanjiro hung out, played tennis, trained, and talked tons. Her and Ryoma were the same. And I think she saw Rinko as a second mother figure sort of person. She's that kind of lady, always very kind to everyone. Super sweet; makes you wonder how she ended up with that guy."

The man stopped talking once again, sighing, and running a hand through his hair.

"You probably want to know why I'm going through all of the background information. Well, you sort of need to know what sort of a relationship she harbored with them and stuff. You see, when they left, her phone sort of became the only way she could contact the family, so she now has another form of OCD. She won't let anyone near her phone; keeps it with her all the time. When she sleeps, it's there beside her bed. I think if anyone took it she would fall apart. She's that sort of person. She's quite weak emotionally."

"She has got a little better though. When she was younger, she used to call them every day, and sit there talking for as long as possible. She was about fifteen at the time. She used to carry the phone in her hand all the time, and not like to see it away from her line of vision. Nowadays she leaves it around at the side of the court and stuff. It's good, really it is."

"Just don't look down on her now, she's got more issues than anyone in this place, but she's one of the best of them. Although she is a little, let's say controlling, but it's in her nature alright?"

"Hai", Tezuka replied. It had been a lot to take in. She had a completely different side to her than he had seen before. It was somewhat unnerving, but he certainly did not feel like she was a bad person, in all honesty, he felt that he now had more respect for her. He would keep his agreement too; he would not speak to anyone else about what he had heard. It was indeed very private.

He hoped that she really was as happy as she appeared to be.

_**WTF? MANY EMOTIONS MUCH? I DONT KNOW WHERE ALL THAT CAME FROM(!) WAAAA LIKES? NO LIKES? REWRITE? CHANGE? REVIEWWWWWW!! X X X X**_


	9. Chapter 9

_**To my reviewers: THANK YOUUUUU :DDD I love you muchlies passes out sweeties  
**_

_**Kaytei-kun: Teehee...I really do...when I have an idea I just HAVE to put it down on paper before it goes away again...and I figure I might as well post things when I have them...or they get forgotten...and lost...and deleted...and stuff...Also...teehee...sorry...I seem to confuse my readers alot sigh haha :P But I don't know if I'm gunna tell you who it is in this fic...although it may become obvious in a later chapter...but I am writing a fic from Yuki's point of view; becuse I thought it would be interesting to see what she thinks of stuff; it also explains a lot of stuff about Temple, and about Tezuka's career that he doesn't know about...the whole thing is a conspiricy theory I tell thee. xD Oh...shall I post that now? I don't know if it would ruin this one a little bit? O.O let me know anywhooooo  
**_

_**Also, I had servere OCD a while ago, and I had to go to neumerous sessions with anoying people who 'try to help' in the wrong ways...which I think is what randomly inspired me to write her OCD into the story...also it kinda helps with the the plotline O.O at lest I think so :P You and your friend sound fun though . It must be nice to have someone who does routines and stuff, supportive :D...hmm...I wrote more than planned xD haha ;) ON WITH THE STORY YAA:**_

_**Chapter song: Faint - Linkin Park  
Chapter 9: **_

It was two weeks after Tezuka had arrived that it had happened. The whole team had suddenly been called into a meeting one morning. Noone seemed to know what was going on, and after informing him in a firm tone that Tezuka needed to be in conference room one at ten o clock sharp the next morning, Yuki had hung up on him.

Tezuka met up with Mitsu on the way down to the conference room on the morning of the meeting. Apparently he had decided to stay overnight because of the upcoming meeting; he had looked little put out about it; he wouldn't tell Tezuka what was going on, but he had let him know, in not so many words, that it was something important.

The man hadn't even called Yuki their 'Lord and Master' in his usual mocking mannor, he had been pretty down about the whole thing; Tezuka hoped that it was nothing serious.

They got to the conference room five minutes early, but everyone else, minus Yuki, had already arrived. They sat down at the end of the long table, opposite from each other. Hideyo, who he had sat down next to, immeadiatly turned to him and asked him if he knew what the meeting was about. When he'd answered negative, she sighed, and told him that nobody on the team knew.

At ten o clock exactly (Tezuka checked his watch), Yuki walked through the door. She looked exhausted. She had small black bags under her eyes, and her hair, which was usually a little windswept, was in complete disarray; it looked suspiciously like she had run her hand through it a great number of times.

He watched her walk towards the front of the room, trailing her hand along the back of their chairs as she did so, walking extra slowly, it seemed, so that she could reach the end of each one before moving on. Tezuka saw Mitsu flinch out of the corner of his eye, and his thoughts reminded him that the girl had once suffered badly from OCD.

He had read somewhere that OCD could affect people, even after they had gotten over it, in times of stress. Yuki looked very stressed now.

When she reached the front, everyone was silent. She pulled a big rolled up sheet of paper from her bag, and turned to stick it on the whiteboard at the front of the room.

The peice of paper was a list of those players who would be playing in the boy team in the next weeks matches.

The list went:

Male team:

Kiyoshi Hajime and Hotaka Isawo - Second doubles

Minoru Naoki and Yori Nobu - First doubles

Yuudai Yuu - Third singles

Mitsu buchou - Second singles

Tezuka Kunimitsu - Singles one

"I have brought you here today", Yuki started, "because I have received some information which has made me rearrange the team for next weeks matches."

The whole team errupted.

"What do you mean rearranged?" Came Yuudai Yuu's booming voice.

"How so?" Mioru Naoki's voice squealed.

"What the hell?! You can't do that!" Hotaka Isawo yelled out.

"Quiet!" The woman yelled, their bickering immeadiatly ceased. "I think you'll find that I can indeed change the order; it is a week away after all. Also, Yoshimitsu buchou has given me full permission to change the order of the boys team."

It was the first time Tezuka had ever heard Yuki, or anyone at Temple, call Mitsu by his first name. Most of the boys called him by the term buchou, but some ignored his status as well, although some who did call him by the name Mitsu buchou only called him Mitsu outside of training.

"The girls should also stop making such a fuss; this has nothing to do with your arrangements; the only reason you are hear is because Ume-chan insisted that a team meeting should involve the whole _team."_

The team remained silent as she glared around, some of the girls who had yelled out looked a little embaressed. The boys looked determindly back at her. If he hadn't seen them interact with her before then, he would have thought that they hated each other. They were, however, more like a family. He didn't know why they were so angry already though, aside from the fact that it may have been beause it was early in the morning, and he didn't think that Yuki had ever changed the order of teams before; judging by their reactions.

"The changes that have been made are the following:

Singles three will be Tezuka Kunimitsu

Singles two will be Yoshimitsu Buchou

Singles one will be Yuudai Yuu

There will be no arguements, unless you want out."

Kiyoshi Hajime was the first to speak up. "You want us to lose?" he looked incredulous, "you've taken both of our best players off the top spots! What the hell do you think you're doing!?" he yelled the last part, standing up.

"Hajime" came Mitsu's voice from the end of the table. "Yuki knows what she is doing. Let her finish."

"Surely she is finished?" another voice spoke up, Mai Azame's.

"No", Yuki's voice cut through her.

"The matches will no longer be held with the burger brigade." The team looked around at each other, and then back up to Ayame. "We wanted it to be a surprise, but we're going to have matches with them after the break, and after the mixed games, as warm up rounds for the bigger competitions that are coming up for some of you when you get back." She looked around the table, daring the team to speak up to her again.

"We are going to be having matches with Shou Ryouichi's lot. We, that is, me, Mitsu, and Tsubame, thought it would be a good laugh to beat them before we went on our breaks; to show off the effects of our hard work this month. However, it would seem that Ryouichi is not playing ball. That is to say that the bastard has gone behind our backs again, and is cheating already. So blame him!"

The team were still silent.

"I expect you all to work hard on your own this week as I will be busy training with Yuu on a daily basis; one to one."

Yuudai Yuu looked to Tezuka as if he were about to protest, but a glare from Yuki shut him up.

"Kunimitsu", she called to him, he looked up and met her eyes. "You will be training with Mitsu for the week; he will go over the skills we have been learning with you."

"Hai", he replied, giving her a small smile.

"Dismissed!"

The team got up and left, talking a little angrily as they went. Tezuka watched as Mitsu walked towards Yuki, who was pulling the big peices of paper from the board. When everyone but Tezuka had left, Mitsu pulled the girl into what Tezuka could only discribe as a brotherly hug. Tezuka decided it would probably be best to leave, even though he did want to talk to Mitsu about their training sceduled.

He decided to spend the day in the gym.

It seemed, once he got there, that that was where everyone else had decided to go; the boys at least. They were all gathered around the weights machines, talking about the meeting. He walked up to them, and listened to their conversation. It was about what they had just heard. He wasn't particularly sure why they were mad, it was probably just because they had no idea what was going on inside their captain's head. When they asked him what he thought, he told them that she was the captain, and they should trust her judgement.

They decided between them that they would 'find out what was going on'. Tezuka agreed to join them, although he was sure nothing was 'going on'; in all honesty, he felt a little glad that he had been placed in singles three, at lest he would have less responsibility.

They decided that they would act upon their suspicians that night; agreeing that 'the earlier it was sorted, the better'.

Tezuka couldn't help the slight feeling of dread that came accross him.

_**Good? Yay? Neigh? Okay, not going through all that again...REVIEWWWWWWW X X X X X X X**_


	10. Chapter 10

_**Chapter song: Chevelle - I get it**_

_**Chapter name: Hello I'm very short**_

Tezuka knew it was wrong, but he followed the boys as they climbed up the side of the wall. They'd already scaled the walls outside and assured him that they'd done this sort of thing before. Everything was going to be fine; they'd know exactly what Yuki was thinking, and she'd be none the wiser – if she'd made a team change, she would still be thinking it over; just in case.

Tezuka was the last one to reach the window; but the most shocked to see what he saw. First, he only saw Yuki; she was sitting on the edge of her bed; her back curved over, and to them. She had one arm wrapped around her front; her head was staring straight ahead, and she held a phone in her hand, to her ear.

Then he shifted his weight to his left side; and almost fell back down again to whence he'd come. He managed to save himself, by clinging on for dear life for a few moments, while he adjusted his position, matching the one he'd been in moments before. He looked around her side and saw what she was watching, whilst she talked on the phone.

The television was playing a very familiar match to Tezuka; he wondered how she'd managed to get hold of such a tape. The match was the one in which Atobe Keigo had managed to destroy his shoulder.

He watched with the others as the woman in front of him suddenly hung up the phone, clenching it tightly within her hand for a moment, before throwing the object across the room. It hit the wall and clattered to the floor. Her arm snaked around her front to wrap around her legs. She was still watching the match.

He watched as she watched his shoulder give out, his hand reaching up to clutch at it, falling to his knees and…

The television screen went blank. She had turned it off. He watched as she threw the remote at the same place she had thrown the phone. There was one mark on the wall in the place where they'd both hit. Then she walked over, picked up her phone; turning side on to them, and punched in a number.

They watched as she spoke rapidly into the phone for a while; before finally hanging up. She walked towards the bed, sighing, her eyes closing; before finally just as she reached out towards the bed, she slumped forwards onto it, her eyes closing; falling into a deep sleep.

He turned to the others to find them staring at him from where they clung, they were suddenly realising the reason that the team had been changed. He thought with horror, that he knew now too.

_**Good? ...REVIEWWWWWWW X X X X X X X**_


	11. Chapter 11

_**Hey people; I posted 'Tramlines:Yuki's tale'**_

_**Basically, it's Yuki's side of the story, but it explains a lot more about the goings on at Temple; and it encorperates a lot of aspects that Tezuka doesn't know about. About Yuki...his career, Ume-san, and the other charecters that he doesn't know so well.**_

_**Summery: Tramlines:Yuki's Tale - His body twisted as he leaned to the side to return the shot; it was perfect, Zero-Shiki; she had told him not to use it yet, his secret move; she wanted to reach out to him, to snap him out of the haze he had fallen into. For some reason this match was more important to him than his career; she could do nothing. But that was her job - she merely watched from the tramlines.**_

_**It's not the same summery as on the FF thingie, but it's longer, etc, and probably explains a bit more.**_

**_P.S. Thankies AnimeLover - here's the update ;) :D :P_**

_**Chapter song: High School Never Ends - Bowling for Soup  
**_

_**Chapter 11: Eavesdropping**_

"Hey! Kunimitsu! Walk with us!"

Tezuka turned around, surprised to see Minoru Naoki and Yori Nobu, the boys best doubles pair, calling to him from down the corridor. He turned and walked towards them.

"Would you like to accompany us to town?" the smaller of the boys, Nobu, asked him.

"Where are you going?" he asked them, he might do, he had his wallet with him after all.

"We're going to get Tsubame-chan some flowers; it's her birthday tody", Naoki replied, grinning up at Tezuka.

"Ah", he hadn't realised it was her birthday. Nobody had notified him, "I will come."

The boys lead him out of the complex and out to the town; where he had not actually ventured yet. The only way he had seen it was through a taxi window, as he had been driven from the airport. In the morning it was bustling with people, all out to purchase goods in the sunlight. The boys lead him to a backstreet, where they told him the market was located; Yuki had told him about it before; it was supposed to be the best place to buy gifts, because most shops there had a quirky nature.

The boys walked to the end of the street, and Tezuka found himself outside of a big flower shop; which had flowers almost spilling out of the door; he followed them inside, and they were met by a rather large woman, who wore a very colourful skirt and t-shirt.

"Come in, come in!" she told them, smiling widely, her grin stretching to the edges of her face. Her frizzy orange hair falling around her cheeks. "What can I do for you boys?"

"We came to buy a big bunch of flowers for our manager" Naoki informed her, smiling a winning smile at the woman.

The woman in front of them clapped her hands together. "You must be from Temple!" she cried out, excited, "I used to see a lovely young man from that place who came in here to buy flowers for his wife." She told them, smiling, "I'm told he was quite the tennis player." She laughed. "I have just the thing for you boys!"

She lead them to the back of the shop, pulling out different flowers as she went, laying them all on the table. Once she had a huge amount of flowers spread in front of her, she asked them how much they were willing to pay. The three of them agreed to pay in twenty pounds each.

"Lovely!" the woman had cried again, pulling all of the flowers together into an arrangement, before pulling out a big box from underneath the desk. She wrapped the flowers quickly and expertly inside some pink and white polka-dotted tissue paper, and then tied it all up with a big red bow.

She handed the arrangement across to Tezuka, who, being the oldest, she had obviously assumed to be the 'leader of the bunch'. He took them, and they paid across their money.

The boys then headed back towards the complex. When they got there, they weaved through the corridors of offices, until they reached the one upon which Ume-san's office was located. They knocked on the door for a few moments, before the woman called out that they could enter.

Her room looked almost similar to the flower shop; bunches of flowers had been placed in vases all over the place, and there was a lovely mix of aromas tinting the air. It smelled wonderful to Tezuka. There were also big boxes of chocolate gracing the woman's desk, along with a dosen or so cards.

She smiled and laughed as they brought the flowers to her, embracing each of them in a hug and telling them 'thank you' once they had wished her a happy birthday. They stayed to chat for a little while, before she headed off to get another vase for the flowers. Apparently there were lots at the front reception for days like this.

When she was gone, they headed down the corridor which Tezuka recognised as the one Shou Ryouichi's office was located on. He was surprised, however, when the boys suddenly stopped, pointing towards a person who was rapidly approching the man's office from a different corridor.

They waited until the woman had entered the waiting area, before Tezuka followed them to the door, peeking inside.

Yuki had marched right up to the man's office door, whilst the secutary watched; it seemed that this was a common occurance. She banged on the office door with her fist a number of times before the man finally opened the door.

"What?" he snapped, his head sticking out of the door. Upon seeing who it was, he sneered down at her, walking outside into the waiting area. "What do _you_ want?" he asked her menacingly. Glaring down at her.

"You", she said in a low, icy voice, "are a bloody cheat! A scoundral! What did you think you were _doing?_"

The man smirked at her. "Oh, you mean_ that. I assure you, _I meant _nothing _by it, I was merely taking on a new client; seeing as mine seem to keep _disapearin._"

"Oh, and you just _happened _to chose _him_?"

"So it would seem, Yuzuki-_san_."

"And what sort of _arrangement _have you come to with him, may I ask?"

"The sort of arrangement that someone like Ume Tsubame could _never _offer."

"Ah, I see", she replied, icily, "I'll just have to make sure that _I _can offer it."

The man looked at her and laughed.

"I wish you good luck, in that case Yuzuki-_san_."

The boys suddenly grabbed Tezuka, making a run for it down the corridor before the woman saw them eavesdropping.

* * *

He'd returned to his room that day, utterly confused. In all honesty, he had not imagined T-international this way when he had come from Japan to become a professional. Firstly, he had expected more outward hostility; but it appeared that almost everyone, bar several very, very stuck up players, whom Tezuka had wisely avoided, was very kind to each other.

However, there seemed to be an ongoing fued between managers; even when the players, who were supposed to be enemies, were all the best of friends.

One thing was clear: Shou Ryouichi and Ume Tsubame did not get along with each other. In the slightest. He did know, of course, that they were the two best managers for Japanese players, in the buisness; he had been told enough times; he'd gotten the message. He supposed that this would lead to an amount of hostility.

Another fact that had been made clear to him was that the teams under such managers also hated each other. He had yet to meet a member of Shou Ryouichi's team because there was nobody on his own team who wanted to speak to them. Having seen them in the cafeteria plenty of times, he could see that they were not the nicest people, because they always seemed to be boasting; however, this probably wasn't the reason for the hostility between the teams; after all, they seemed to get along with other, less kindly people.

He assumed they'd gotten along with Kevin when he'd been a brat.

There was also the unspoken of hatred which was shared between Yuki and Shou Ryouichi. When he had asked about the matter, he had just been told that it was a 'love hate' relationship; nobody else would say anything on the matter.

It seemed to be more than the obvious love hate relationship though; they could hardly have assumed that he was so blind not to have noticed it. Certainly, he wore glasses, but that did not mean he didn't see things.

Especially things which were right in front of his eyes.

Especially things which wern't supposed to be there.

Having heard the conversation between Yuki and Shou-san earlier that day, he couldn't help but wonder if it hadn't had something to do with her changing around the team for the upcoming matches with his team. He also assumed that it had something to do with the fact that he and the other men had found her watching the video of Tezuka's match.

He couldn't help but feel a twinge of fustration. Did it mean something? Had she been looking into the problems that he had had with his arms? Was she researching Atobe? Or him?

He had no idea. For the first time in his life, Tezuka was well and truly stumped. Admittedly.

_**Tell all! REVIEW! :D**_

* * *


	12. Chapter 12

_**Chapter song: All I need - Within Temptation  
**_

_**Chapter 12: Surprise**_

Tezuka was in formed, by word of mouth, that every year the tennis team held a surprise dinner that night for Ume-san, and went to a posh resturant in town.

Apparently after four years of the same thing, it was still a suprise dinner.

So he found himself meeting Mitsu in the lobby on that evening. The older man had kindly offered him a lift, which Tezuka had accepted gratefully.

Mitsu had talked about the last years dinner on the way to the resturant, apparently they had dined ad a resturant called 'Startown'. Tezuka assumed that they would be returning there again this year.

Apparently Ume-san cried evey year from how nice her team were to her; although Tezuka couldn't understand why, all of the team members were very close to her anyway - despite the fact that she was their manager. Tezuka himself had become close to her in the last few weeks. Everytime she saw him she made the effort of asking him about his wellbeing, training, and how he was enjoying his time there; he always returned the nicities, and they ususally got talking. Despite hit initial reservations, brought about, he assumed, by the lasting first impression she had bestowed upton him, it had turned out that she was a very kind and nice, sane woman. She was also quite smart it seemed, not only in fashion but in brainpower stats.

He did wonder, however, if she played tennis. The only clothes he ever got to see her wear were posh pencil skirts and blazers; he had never seen her in a sports kit. He supposed that she just took an interest in watching the sport; rather than accrually participating in it.

They arrived at the resturant at seven, and talked to the nearest waiter about their reservations; he immeadiatly lead them to a private back room, where they discovered that everyone, aside from Yuki and Ume-san, were waiting. They all grinned up at them, and pulled them to the empty chairs. Mitsu sat near the front, with the young doubles duo of the boys team; Tezuka would up sitting between Kiyoshi Hajime and Hotaka Isawo, the second doubles pair. They were both very nice people; they were also an older pair, who he had heard were quitting after the next competition; they informed him while they spoke that this competition would be their 'swan performance'. Tezuka thought it was fitting that they would give it at Wimbledon.

At half past seven the people around the table started handing out party poppers, and Tezuka wondered what they were doing. By eight o clock, they had decerated the head place at the table with baloons and streamers, and they all had party poppers in hand, and he had even been forced to wear, as they were, a rediculous party hat. Mitsu had clamped him on the back and told him to relax, as it was 'just a bit of fun'.

He had thought it would be a more formal dinner; he had worn a suit. Granted, he was not acctually wearing a tie, and had left the higher buttons open, and that he was not currently wearing his jacket, but a suit no less. He'd been happy to see that he was not over or underdressed; however, it seemed a shame to ruin the formal atmosphere with childish behaivour.

When the door opened, and Ume-san walked in, followed by Yuki, grinning widely, they all released their party poppers and shouted 'surprise!', as they had been instructed to do by Hideyo, who seemed to have arranged most of the night.

Dinner was a loud affair with good foor, and good wine (bought for those who could drink it, and sneakily passed on to those who couldn't; leagally).

Tezuka found, by the end of the night, that he had managed to have a good time. He had talked a lot with those people around him; far more than he usually had done, and he had enjoyed the festivities afterall. Many people had told him, under the influence of alcohol, the more embaressing stories which circulated around Temple. He had enjoyed them as much as the others.

Ume-san had, of course, cried, before going around and thanking everyone, hugging and kissing them all on the cheek, yelling about how happy she was. Yuki and Mitsu looked especially pleased. He realised that they were probably the ones who had planned the evening; although they had roped in Hideyo to make sure things went well before Ume-san arrived.

Mitsu had offered to give a very drunk Ume-san a ride home, since he was probably the only one capable of carrying her if the woman passed out; or the only one of these people who could drive, since he hadn't drunk too much. Many others also had designated drivers. Tezuka assumed he would have to call for a Taxi at the end of the evening. However, Yuki offered to give him a lift.

He realised at that time, the he'd had no idea that the woman drove, less had a car; he'd always seen her walk or ride a bike to Temple each morning. She confided in him that she didn't like to drive much; but Mitsu had taken Ume-san's car, so she was going to have to drive it back to his anyhow.

The ride home did not take long. Yuki talked to him about the party, and also about Ume-san. She asked him if he was enjoying his time at Temple, which he was. She seemed happy when she dropped him off; although he had barely answered her questions, as usually; barely using three words to reply, unless the question truly merited it.

"I'll see you tomorrow Kunimitsu", she had told him when he'd gotten out of the car, "there will be no official practice, but I'd like it a lot if I saw you on the courts."

"Ah", he had replied, of course he would be practicing.

He bid her a good night and left, watching as the sports car drove off into the distance. It seemed Mitsu was the sort of person who liked fast cars. He wondered to himself whether he should learn to drive sometime in the near future; though he dismissed the thought quickly; he didn't need any distractions from tennis.

**_Sorry it's a bit crap atm, lacking inspiration, its a bit dodgy, but the next chapters tighten the story line a bit. Am redrafting them because they are cruddy...know what I wanna do with it next though...stay tuned...and review :P This chapter probably should have been tacked onto chapter 11, but ohhh welll...  
_**


	13. Chapter 13

_**IMPORTANT A/N - Wasn't sure if I should go right into this...like...BIGASS gap between this chapter and the one before (Likeee, a few days...longest gap so far I reckonnnnn...) HOWEVER, YUKI'S STORY FILLS IN THE GAPS - if you wanna know them, and THE NEXT CHAPTER fills in basically what occurs between the two main charecters in this chapter the DAY BEFORE...Go. Read. REVIEWWW. If you want anything changed, juuuust tell me ;)**_

_**Chapter song: Ugly side - Blue October  
**_

_**Chapter 13: Zero-shiki**_

"Mitsu" the voice had yelled, Yataka san was running down the corridor towards the two of them, "Come quick you two! You GOTTA SEE THIS!" the man yelled, turing back towards the way he had come, running back down the corridor. They followed him immeadiatly at a sprint.

When they stopped, they found themselves at a tennis court; one of the indoor courts; many people were crowded round it; Daisuke grabbed them and lead them through the crowed to the side of the umpire.

It was there that Tezuka suddenly saw him. The man hadn't changed since the last time he saw him; he stood tall, long grey hair falling stylishly around his face; his body lith, but muscular. He wore sportsware; white shorts with a grey t-shirt. Top of the range trainers and racket were also sported by the man.

It was Atobe Keigo.

He didn't even notice the man's opponent until the umpire annonced that she was to serve. Tezuka's neck clicked as his head shot around to see her. Standing there in a tennis dress was Yuki, a racket in one hand, a and a ball in the other; looking accross the pitch with an expression that could only be called one thing: Malice.

Atobe raised his hand to his face, one finger on his forehead, two on either side of his nose, the others curled around each other; his eyes showed confidence. Tezuka recognised this look with dread.

"You will lose", he told the girl from the other side of the court, "Ore-sama can see your weekness."

Yuki walked to the back of the court, examining the ball she was holding, bouncing it several times, before catching it and looking up.

"Would you like to get some water before the match? I heard dehydration causes you to see things that arn't there; and I'd hate for your game to be damaged by something so petty as a mirage."

She was mocking him already; Tezuka had to give her some credit, she seemed to have ruffled the man's feathers. He had taken his hand away from his face, leaning fowards, feet placed evenly apart, with his tennis racket clasped in his hand. Tezuka turned back to take in Yuki's expression; she looked very serious, she leant foward, bouncing the ball several times in quick succession; then then she stood up, and threw the ball high into the air, jumping up after it, and bringing her racket down on it fast.

The ball hit the very top of the racket, and, faster than Tezuka could follow it, it flew accross the court, hitting the centre of the service box.

The ball started to move upwards, almost virtically, but Atobe was there; he'd gotten even better since Tezuka had last seen him. He wacked the ball upwards into a lob; but Yuki was at the net already. She reached out with her racket and smashed the ball back down before it could reach any higher than the top of her jumping reach.

"15-love" the umpire called out, stuttering slightly. Tezuka watched as Yuki walked back towards the line, not even smirking at her opponent.

"Shit", the voice of Mistu whispered beside him. "She's playing seriously."

Tezuka turned back towards the game again, determined to watch every part of it. Each rally was a short one; Yuki won every point. She beat him once again with a smash, and twice more with well placed cord balls.

She took took the nearest side to Tezuka and the other boys, walking right past them when she changed ends. He wanted to say something to her, but Yataka-san shook his head at him; telling him not to.

It was probably safest that way. Yuki was seriously riled up.

As the game progressed, the crowed became silent; the tension in the stadium was cutting. Tezuka watched as the girl started to crush each one of Atobe's moves. He had improved since his days at Hyotei Gakeun. His moves were more powerful and precise. She seemed to be countering every one of them with minimal effort though.

The only thing that gave her away was the sweat that dripped from her forehead.

It was in the fourth game that things got interesting. Up until that game, she had crushed him with everything she had; and he hadn't won a single point. It showed Tezuka exactly why she had become a tennis captain; exactly why she was a professional player; how she had won so much respect in Temple.

It was in the forth game that Atobe brought out his Tannhauser serve. The serve of his which span along the ground once it had hit the floor. He won every point in that game.

The fith match was also taken by Atobe; who brought out a new move; Tannhauser drop. The ball dropped over the net and span along the ground. When Yuki managed to return it with a lob, Atobe brought out Jack knife; smashing it over her head; to the spot right behind her.

"Game to Atobe! Two games to three!" The umpire yelled.

"She needs this game" a voice came from beside Tezuka, he turned, surprised, to find Kevin Smith standing at his side, "since I've known her, I've never seen her lose more than two games in a row. I don't know if her ego could take such a hit." Then, amazingly, the boy laughed, "still, it would teach her a lesson right? Haha."

He knew the boy didn't mean to say such a thing in a nasty way; however, he wanted Yuki to win the game. She had sealed most of Atobe's shots; but if he kept using these new moves, he wasn't sure if the girl could take it.

She did lose the next game. It was another game of Tannhauser serve; although Tezuka could see what a strain it was putting on Atobe arm. The shot took an awful lot of power; he wouldn't be able to use the serve again. Yuki seemed to know this; she was watching the serve carefully during that game; not even bothering to try and hit it back. Until, that was, the last shot; her eyes widened suddenly, and she lunged towards the ball.

Tezuka realised why at the last second; the spinning ball had risen slightly from the floor. She hadn't managed to hit it back however, as the gap between the floor and the spinning ball was too little.

It was three games all when she changed her tactics.

He watched her as she bounced the ball, for longer than usual; she seemed to be thinking things over. Before she threw the ball, he felt her peircing eyes seek out his face.

Her eyes caught his for only a moment; but they seemed to be searching for something in his. He had no idea what. In a second, she had turned back to the game; throwing the ball into the air; and bringing her racket back down onto it.

Nothing could have prepared him for the next thing he witnessed. The ball was another of her faster balls; Atobe hit it back to her, trying to get it as far away from her as possible; but she was ready, she had seen through him. She lobbed the ball back, right to the back of Atobe's court. The smash Atobs shot back was a cord ball, but she had reached the net before Tezuka saw her move; her next move was a drop shot.

She didn't make a move after she had hit it; Tezuka thought that Atobe was going to get the point; he had rushed and dived foward for the ball - if the ball had come up again, he would have hit it. But the ball hit the floor, and then rolled backwards towards the net.

"Zero-shiki" he gasped out.

"What?" the other boys were looking at him questioningly; they'd never witnessed his drop shot - she'd told him not to use it.

"My drop shot", he said quietly. She'd used his drop shot; noone else knew that he could pull such a move; and he'd just let the cat out of the bag, big time. He berated himself.

"I see", Kevin said, looking towards the game again, "she aimed for the cord ball, and then used that shot to make sure he wouldn't hit it back. No wonder she looked so damn confident."

The game came back into the girl's favour afterwards, she used a series of techniques for that game, causing Atobe to hit cord balls each time; then she used an array of different drop shots. However, she never used the Zero-shiki again; although it lost her one of her points.

Atobe couldn't use his Tannhauser serve again, since he was too tired; so the next game was also in Yuki's favour; she only needed this game to win.

She won the game by using a series of lobs, smashes, and fast, well aimed balls against Atobe; once again changing tactics.

"She needs the next game to win", Kevin stated from beside Tezuka, "but there's something wrong."

"Wrong?" Yataka-san asked from the other side of Tezuka.

"Look at her eyes"

Yuki's eyes were closed as she bounced the ball. Her eyebrows were knitted in concentration; she seemed worried all of a sudden. Tezuka had no idea why. He watched as she took a different stance to her previous serves; he wondered what she was going to do.

It wasn't a serve Tezuka had witnessed before. The ball came down and hit the net; bouncing off it and landing one the ground; raising only a little; Atobe couldn't hit the ball back.

She served the ball this way twice more; winning two more easy points; then she reverted back to her previous serve.

She won the last point the same way that she had won the first serve. Serve, smash. It was a victory to her.

He just watched as Atobe walked towards the net, looking royally annoyed.

"Ore-sama acknowledges your poweress. You win, Ore-sama does not break his promises."

"Good", Yuki replied, ignored, slapping away his hand, "then go home." Then she turned to leave, bringing her tennis racket up to lean on her shoulder as she walked away.

"Ore-sama's aqquantance wishes to know when you are going to debut" Atobe's voice stopped her. "Ore-sama is also interested; you appear to have some talent; though you're using it to protect others?"

"Ore-_sama _will not crush buds before they bloom."

"I see"

This time Atobe let her walk away from him.

_**ARGHH!! WTF?? WHY WAS ATOBE THERE? WHAT DOES YUKI MEAN? WHY DID THEY HAVEE THE MATCH?  
I DON'T KNOW EITHER!! I'LL WRITE IT RIGHT NOW!! ARGHHH...STAY TUNED...NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE UPLOADED AS SOON AS I'VE WRITTEN IT!! REVIEWWWW!! X X X X X X X X X**_


	14. Chapter 14

_**A/n: Decided not to join this onto the other chapter because it made more of a statement on it's own...and I love Atobe...he deserves his own chapter for just being amazing...I have recently come to like Atobe...although I wanted to crush him into little grains of Atobe-sand when he hurt Tezuka...WAAAA POOR TEZUKAAAAAAA T.T But yeahh...REVIEEEWWW...and ENJOYYYY...**_

Atobe: BE AWED BY MY POWERESS!  
Kabuji: USU!

Chapter song: People help the people - Cherry Ghost  
Chapter 14: Getting Aquainted.

Others had left the statium, following the girl out of the door. Mitsu himself followed the girl, pushing through the croweds to get towards the door, and her, as soon as he could.

Tezuka turned to glance at Kevin before stepping towards Atobe, who had grabbed a towel and was sitting on a bench at the side of the court. He stood in front of the other man for a few moments before he looked up and saw him.

"Tezuka", he said suddenly, he sounded surprised. Then his eyes narrowed. "I should have known."

Then he leaned back, laughing at him.

"What's this about Atobe? Why are you here?" Tezuka asked the man in a stern manor.

"Heh, it seems that woman didn't tell you..."

* * *

Atobe Flashback:

He'd been practicing for a couple of hours that day; he'd been playing on a court quite near to the complex, outside, he was hitting serves accross the court, the speed getting faster, the power growing with each shot. He needed to be on top form.

He'd seen the girl walk up to the fence and watch for a while, finally sitting down on the cold, dirty ground, near to the entrance of the court. She had been carrying a tennis racket under her arm; when she sat, she rested it in her lap and leant her elbows on the strings, resting her chin on her fists.

He'd wondered immeadiatly who she was; someone who would sit in the dirt willingly, and say nothing about the fact. He felt that she must have been infinatly common, whoever she was.

He guessed that she would get bored and go away soon. However, an hour later, he realised that he had been wrong; she had sat there silently for over an hour. He turned around and walked to the fence; she got up as he approached her.

"Is there something you want?"

"How observant of you" the woman replied, looking up at him. She had short blue hair, and she was tiny. She had a very small, lith figure; she looked like she was the fast sort of tennis player to him. She had been rude, but he supposed that he could ignore it this time; he was nothing if not curtious.

"And what can Ore-sama do for you?" he asked closing his eyes and looking to the side, bringing his hand up to run it through his hair.

"Doesn't _someone _have a high oppinion of themselves?"

He turned back to face her, his eyes snapping open; taking the girl in once again. She was perfectly ordinary, but she posessed such _insolance. _She was so _rude. _She obviously didn't realise what sort of person he was; or how important he was.

"Who are you", he sneered back at her, irritated now at her manor.

"The person your mummy warned you about", she told him with a small smirk. So, she was going to be _witty _was she? What a pesant.

"Then it's nice to have cleared that up Tramp-san."

He smirked as he saw her eyebrow twitch upwards. She crossed her arms, her tennis racket swinging loosely from her left hand. _Another leftie, _he smirked internally, _all of the troublesome ones are lefties._

"So what can Ore-sama do for you? Or were you just sitting there because you were in awe of my poweress?"

The girl chuckled. She was _mocking _him! The insult!

"Be reassured, if I was looking for someone to be 'in awe' of, I would not have come to a public court." She told him.

He was pissed now; she obviously hadn't recognised either his importance, or talents; _and _she had made a joke about him being on _public _tennis courts. It was insulting, Ore-sama had _never_ been treated this way before.

The girl was carrying on though, so he decided to listen to what she was going to say, before he would shoot her down at the end. He smirked at his plan.

"What did Shou Ryouichi offer you to play in his competition?"

He hadn't expected that.

"Shou told me that there was someone here that I would want to play." He replied, "and Ore-sama was in America for buisness."

"I'll make you a better deal", he raised his eyebrow. "He gave you something else; I'll give you something better."

He smirked at her.

"Hm? He offered to send some buisness my way. Not that Ore-sama needs it."

"I'll send more buisness your way." He looked her over. He _doubted _that.

"What sort of a deal?" he was curious after all.

"Play me." She told him simply. He crunched up his face, and scowled at her.

"You?" he asked, incredulous.

"Me. If you lose, you will go home, and not play in the competition."

"Ore-sama would not be beaten by a girl", he told her confidently, running his hand through his hair again, leaning backwards.

"You are mistaken", she replied. "Meet me at the inside arena at T-international tomorrow at one, if you wish to make this deal."

"Ore-sama would not back away from a challenge!" he told her indignantly.

"Good, then I'll see you tomorrow. Don't forget."

He watched her as she walked away, in the direction of the famous tennis school. He was shocked; somehow she'd managed to get him to agree to a match.

His practice had suddenly become a lot more furious.

* * *

The other boy sighed, leaning back again, running his hand through his hair.

"What a troublesome woman" he stated, looking at Tezuka. "She Ore-sama break his deal."

"I thought you didn't need the deal", Kevin broke into their conversation; not one to be ignored, he had followed Tezuka over and listened in.

"Ore-sama does not need deals at all", he replied, glaring at the boy. Tezuka got the impression that he hadn't remembered the American boy, "Ore-sama merely does not like breaking deals".

Kevin snorted, turning his head away from the two men.

"Whatever", he said, turning his back on them, he started walking towards the door. "I'm going to go see what's bugging Yuki nee-san."

It was the first time Tezuka had heard him call her 'nee-san", however, it didn't sound like such a foreign concept.

"I'll be going to, Atobe"

"I'll be seeing you Tezuka"

Tezuka left the boy to wallow in his defeat in the proud way only Atobe Keigo could.

_**WAAAA!! Short...but needed to be put up to go with the last chapter!! And the first draft was taking up VALUBLE SPACE! ARGH!...Wait!...WHAT'S BUGGING YUKI?? (I think it's something rather interesting! ;) Ha. You'll have to wait 'till next time!! I'll see if I can write it up tonight...not sure though...watching movies took a lot of time out of my day...waaaa...will TRY HARD to get this story finished by Sat...since I'm going out...then Sunday this random guy I really like is coming home from abroad...so I'm afraid I will not be around... I will be out bugging him instead...333333 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x REVIEWWW!! x x x x x x x x x x x x**_


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